172 DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTANT FISHERIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS 



In 1960, a production of 951,000 cases was reported. The record shrimp 

 pack was in 1937 when 1,435,000 cases were produced. 



Canneries used about one-fifth of the total U.S. production of shrimp 

 in 1959, employing especially the small sizes. Shrimp smaller than 60 to 

 the pound (heads off) went principally to the canning market, while 

 substantial quantities of 30-60 count shrimp were also canned. The 

 small shrimp in Alaska and other Pacific Coast states were nearly all 

 marketed peeled, either canned or cooked. Canneries in the southern 

 states packed about equal quantities of brown and white shrimp and 

 small quantities of pink shrimp and sea bobs. 



Canning Process. Shrimp received at the cannery are first dumped 

 into a washer and deicer, from which they are removed by a wire mesh 

 belt. They pass on the belt in front of inspectors who remove broken, 

 decomposed, and discolored shrimp, as well as extraneous matter. The 

 shrimp are now weighed, and it is usually not until this point that the 

 cannery assumes ownership of the shipment. This encourages better care 

 of the shrimp by the boat operator. 



Shrimp are usually delivered to canneries with the heads on. When 

 market conditions demand it, canneries will occasionally buy fresh head- 

 less shrimp. In certain rarer instances, frozen headless shrimp may be 

 purchased. The removal of the heads and shells or the shells alone is 

 called picking. This operation was formerly done entirely by hand, but 

 in the late 1940's machines were developed for this purpose. Now nearly 

 all the shrimp canned in the United States is machine peeled. About 50 

 to 55 per cent of the weight of shrimp is lost when the head and shell 

 are removed. 



After picking, the shrimp are subjected to another inspection for 

 quality. Some canners now grade the shrimp for size so that the largest 

 individuals can be deveined. The 'Vein" is the intestine of the shrimp, 

 which runs down the dorsal side near the surface. Commonly it is filled 

 with food or sand, and its removal improves the quality of the canned 

 product. Nearly all deveining is done by machines. The deveining is 

 accomplished by splitting the muscle of the shrimp along the length of 

 the intestine and removing the intestine by passing the shrimp through 

 a rotating, indented cylinder partially immersed in water. 



Blanching (or precooking) is the next process. Some canners regard 

 this as one of the most critical operations, since improper blanching 

 markedly affects yield and grading. Proper blanching is said to set the 

 color, to curl the shrimp so that packing and grading can be accomplished, 

 and to extract water and solubles. 



The blanching solution is hot })rine. The strength is ordinarily about 

 25° salinometer, and the length of blanching varies from about IK to 3 



